Rose Hill (ghost farms)

Rose Hill was the name given to the post office for this mountainous corner of Addington County.

As we know, free land grants were given to settlers back in the late 1800s providing they build a dwelling measuring 16x20 feet and clearing the acreage each year. The single lane dirt roads had to also be kept up to standard since these were the only means of travel, other than backwoods hiking. Often the roads would be rutted to extreme measures and logs were set in place to help with the travel. These were called corduroy roads. Today these roads still exist but are impassable in the area around the 1st set of ghost farms we trekked to. At one time they all connected to where the Rose Hill post office stood, to Glenfield and Vennachar in the south, and to Matawatchan to the east in Renfrew County.

The water sources for the farmers were all tiny creeks which flowed into the main water channel called Glenfield Creek. In summer this river doesn't flow extremely hard, but in spring it is a real stunning torrent to behold. Our trek involved a good 2 km walk along the old trail, past the Glenfield Creek (still running with Speckled Trout) and onward. Reaching the open fields where the remains still stand is always a joy for me. We sat and rested on one particular grassy hill, ate our lunch, while imagining the hardships the pioneer family who lived there over 100 yrs ago must have withstood (ie the kids walking through 5 feet of snow, in a temperature of -40 to their school about 4 miles away).

On the side of this hill where our feet dangled over, was a large hole which I am certain was a barn that was dug out to allow cows to stay warm over the winter months. Just below us was another tributary of the Glenfield Creek meandering its way through the muskeg and deep hilly forests.